Kim Sun-ho, Gurye County Governor, Selected as This Year's Best Local Government CEO

Recognized for Outstanding Leadership and Crisis Management Across Public and Private Sectors
Local Autonomy CEO of the Year Award Ceremony to Be Held on the 22nd at the Air Force Hall in Daebang-dong, Seoul

[Gurye=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Hyung-kwon] Kim Soon-ho, the governor of Gurye County, announced on the 2nd that he was selected as the ‘2021 Local Autonomy CEO of the Year’ hosted by the Korea Institute of Public Administration (Chairman Park Woo-seo).

The selection of the ‘Local Autonomy CEO of the Year’ was first initiated in 2012 by the Korea Institute of Public Administration as a commemorative project for the 100th Regional Policy Research Forum, and every year it selects and announces the best local government heads who have achieved outstanding accomplishments in regional development and autonomous management performance.

Since the selection process is conducted through direct voting by members of the Regional Policy Research Forum and local government officials nationwide, it is regarded as the most fair and honorable award.

The Local Autonomy CEO award is given in five categories: one governor of a province, one mayor of a large city with a population over 300,000, one mayor of a small or medium city with a population under 300,000, one county governor, and one district mayor. Kim Soon-ho corresponds to the county governor category.

Governor Kim Soon-ho was highly evaluated in leadership for resolving local issues such as the boundary change of Osan Saseongam cultural heritage area and the entrance fee issue of Cheoneunsa Temple through dialogue and cooperation, which had been obstacles to regional development, and for planning the creation of the Seomjingang integrated tourism belt to overcome small regional limitations and leading the participation of neighboring local governments.

He also demonstrated excellent administrative capabilities by securing 87 billion KRW for the urban regeneration project of the original downtown area of Gurye-eup through government contests and 18.3 billion KRW in living SOC budgets including the Gurye Wellness Complex Center, and was well regarded for establishing welfare environments tailored to local conditions such as the nation’s first free hepatitis C screening.

In particular, his outstanding crisis management skills received great attention for directly conducting daily briefings on flood recovery to all residents during the unprecedented flood damage in August last year, pushing forward damage assessment services with county budget to ensure no one missed compensation due to lack of evidence, and securing a permanent flood recovery budget of 353.6 billion KRW through negotiations with the central government.

Governor Kim Soon-ho said, “This achievement was made possible by the unity of the residents, the county council, and public officials,” and added, “I will continue to devote all efforts so that Gurye’s infinite potential leads to the happy lives of its residents.”

Meanwhile, the Local Autonomy CEO of the Year award ceremony is scheduled to be held on the 22nd at the Seoul Air Force Officers’ Club.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.